Welp, this was just about the absolute last thing that anybody wanted to see with the Postseason on the horizon. With two outs in the third inning and a full-count, Ronald Acuña Jr. fouled one off of his lower leg on one of the spots that wasn’t protected by padding. He was in obvious pain and the trainer attended to him while manager Walt Weiss went out to check on him as well. After a bit of a lengthy examination, Acuña limped off of the field and Brewer Hicklen came on to finish the at-bat.
Needless to say, losing Acuña for the Postseason would be a huge development and not in a good way, either. It would also stink for Acuña since he’s been doing so well in recent weeks and I’d imagine that on a personal level, he’d love to contribute to any type of deep Postseason run that the Braves could make.
For now, here’s hoping that this is just a substitution being made with a precautionary eye towards the Postseason and not anything serious. We’ll see what happens, though.
UPDATE [8:33 p.m. ET]: The Braves have possted on social media that the X-rays on Acuña’s lower leg were negative and that he’s currently listed as being day-to-day. That’s a big sigh of relief.
UPDATE [8:42 p.m. ET]: Lindsay Crosby of Braves Today astutely noted that while the X-rays may be negative, a potential bone bruise wouldn’t show up on an MRI and you’d have to imagine that Acuña might end up needing one at some point. We’ll likely have more information in the postgame press conference and media availability, so stay tuned for more updates.
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